Review: L’Artista, Belconnen

In Canberra there used to be an Italian restaurant that nearly everyone you knew had been to at one point or another in their life. They did a pizza that had bolognese sauce on it that made me go back again and again. Unfortunately, a few years ago all of their stores around Canberra closed down. I didn’t really think about what might have taken their restaurant space in Belconnen until a few weeks ago.

I was looking on Google maps for places in Belconnen and noticed L’Artista was located where they used to be and in fact, they had kept the old number (sounds like a smart idea if people didn’t realise the old place had shut and in it’s place another Italian restaurant had opened). Given that Jarrod and I both work fairly close to the area we decided to go for dinner after work one day on a Thursday night.

L’Artista Restaurant

We had a 6PM booking and when we arrived the place was nearly empty but slowly started filling up with family’s and groups as we ate our meal. The tables are a good size and fit everything easily but the lighting could have been a bit brighter. Even though in the photo above there is a lot of lighting, at the table it wasn’t overly bright – which shows in the photos I took.

Chocolate Milkshake ($4)

We decided to try the milkshakes for our drinks as is our usual but were skeptical of the $4 price tag. We were right to be skeptical as they didn’t have much flavouring at all and weren’t very cold which suggests no icecream was used in their making. Given we were in an Italian restaurant I can forgive the milkshakes not being excellent as I assume they’re there more for a kids novelty than for adults to choose to drink.

Garlic Bread ($7)

For entrée we decided on Garlic Bread which was delicious and buttery. The bread itself was nice and crisp on the outside but still soft and a little spongy on the inside. Combined with the garlic butter it was incredibly tasty. We wished we had more of it though 2 pieces each was probably enough – maybe.

Mmm meat lovers pizza! So maybe it didn’t have bolognese sauce on it but it was still quite tasty. The bbq sauce on top was surprisingly sweet, and a little overpowering but overall the pizza was decent. I enjoyed the combination of meats and was glad I didn’t have to request that they remove onion or mushroom (if I want a meat pizza, I don’t want any vegetables.. I don’t know why it’s common to have onion on them). The only strange thing about the pizza was that we weren’t provided with any new plates, we ended up taking slices and using our entree plates to put them on but given the size of some of the slices they didn’t quite fit some of the time.

We nearly opted for dessert but decided against it and instead decided to go up to Goodberry’s for a concrete each at roughly the same price one of the desserts to share would have cost.

I think L’Artista would be a great takeaway option too and I am interested in trying their lunch specials – 10 for 10 in 10 or 5 – where they have a few specials for $10 and if it takes more than 10mins you get it for $5. Seems like a decent deal to try.